Description

Quake Live is a free-to-play online first person shooter for the PC. It is downloaded and launched via a web browser plug-in. After downloading and installing the plug-in, the game updates itself on its webpage: www.quakelive.com. It is a variant of Quake III: Arena, using the same engine with some graphical improvements. There are over 40 standard maps and 5 game modes for standard users but when the player upgrades to a Premium account, by paying a monthly fee, he can play on 20 additional Premium maps and an additional Freeze Tag game mode. The Pro account, with a higher monthly fee than Premium, includes all the Premium features as well as extra features like hosting a server.

Before the player can play online, the game takes the player to the Training Center, where the player's skill must be tested. After playing a duel with a bot in the Training Center, the players skill level is set and he can play online with players of his/her skill level. The player can not enter servers meant for players with lower skill level, but can enter any servers with higher skill. If the player wants to train, he can start a Practice Match against bots at any time, selecting the map and game type he wants and also setting the skill level for the bots. There is also a rocket jump and strafe jump training, where the player can train his movement.

The game plays similarly to Quake 3: Arena: the player spawns, runs around, picking up weapons, armor, health, power-ups and other items. The main goal on most game types is to frag (kill) your opponent. In Free For All, in order to win, the player must simply have the highest frag count when the time limit expires, or be the first to reach the frag limit. Team Deathmatch is very similar, with the only difference being that players are divided into two teams, and must also watch out to not kill each other. Duel is a typical FFA game, but 1 on 1. In Clan Arena, players spawn with almost all weapons and full armor, and are also divided into two teams. There are no items that spawn on the map, and players don't get hurt by splash damage of their own weapons, or by fall damage. After getting killed in Clan Arena, the player needs to wait until the round ends (it ends when all players from one team are dead), after which the surviving team scores a point. To win a team must reach the score limit first, or have the highest score when the time limit expires. In Capture the Flag, two teams must compete to capture each others' flags, which are placed at the end of each team's base. To score for his team, a player must take the flag of the enemy team and touch his team's flag with it. In order to score, that player's team flag must be at its place. If the flag is stolen, it must be returned, by killing the flag carrier at first, and then simply touching it. Freeze Tag is quite similar to Clan Arena, the only difference is that the player doesn't really "die" when he gets killed, but instead freezes at that point. He can be unfreezed by his teammate if one stands near him for a short time. A team scores a point if all the players from the other team are frozen. If a draw occurs during a match then a sudden death round begins. In FFA, TDM and Duel, this simply adds extra time to the limit. In CTF it also adds time, but also gives longer respawn time to the players by every extra minute. In CA and FT, players simply play one extra round so one of the teams would score.

The maps included in Quake Live are taken from the original game, its expansion, Quake III: Team Arena and it also includes popular custom maps made by map makers. All weapons, items, and power-ups from the original and the expansion are included, with the effect/damage of some being slightly tweaked. Most old maps have also a few modifications and changes on them, to keep them balanced. There is also a wide selection of character models. In order to give the game a Teen rating from the ESRB, the blood and gore from the original game is not included.

Statistics of the matches that the player has played are stored in his profile on the game's website. There the player can see his last matches, his kill/death ratio, total time played, most used weapon, most played map, recent competitors etc. The website also allows you to make friends with other players. If a player then wants to play with his friend, he can click an icon next to his name in the Friends Online section (if the player is currently playing online) and join the game. There are also achievements and awards which the player can earn during gameplay. After earning an award, it is displayed on the player's profile.

Forums

Trivia

Rating

Presumably in order to keep a T rating, the game was polished a lot. Blood and gore were removed entirely, including scars on character models. Characters Cadavre and Grrl, whose appearance was basically only consisting of gore, were removed from the game entirely. Satanic imagery (pentagrams, inverted crosses) were also removed, as well as the cigar belonging to the character Sarge.

References

On the map Forgotten, one of the walls has a UAC sign from DOOM on it.

In the training center, there is a hidden room, inside of which you can find a 2D red key-card from DOOM. There is also a drawing of an Imp, one of the enemies in DOOM.